The present invention relates to a circuit pack handling system.
Maintaining telecommunications bays requires the periodic removal and installation of major components called circuit packs. Circuit packs are large modules that are difficult to handle because of their size, weight, and awkward location, housed in slots ranging in height from a few inches to over six feet off the ground.
Therefore, since these circuit packs must frequently be lifted over workers heads when being inserted or extracted, what is needed is a good gripping surface that is comfortable to hold. The circuit packs may also be hot at the time of extraction so the gripping surface should remain cool to the touch, insulated from the hot heatsink surface.
Even when cool, handling circuit packs by gripping the heatsink ends is uncomfortable, leaving heatsink fin depressions on your hands. Using installation trays to support the circuit packs during installation would require a separate storage space for the trays and would be a component susceptible to being misplaced. A gripping surface integrated with the circuit pack would not require a separate storage space.
The milling of heatsink fins to provide a comfortable gripping surface would reduce the cooling capacity of the heat sink
Placing handles on the front of the circuit pack would take up valuable faceplate real estate and would still require a hand on the heatsink to position the circuit pack into it""s card guides. As well, removing the circuit pack by pulling on handles located on the faceplate area would likely result in the circuit pack slamming into the handler""s body as it is pulled out beyond the shelf frame""s edge.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a system of handling circuit packs that provides for an insulated ergonomic gripping surface that is integrated and unobtrusive.
The present invention is directed to a circuit pack handling system comprised of a handle assembly storage pocket formed in the sidewall of a circuit pack and a carrying handle assembly hinge-mounted within the pocket and adapted to retract substantially within the storage pocket.
The handle assembly is comprised of at least two legs, an inner leg and an outer leg, of substantially equal length hinge-mounted at their circuit pack ends within the pocket.
A gripping member is hinge-jointed to the extended ends of the legs to form the carrying handle assembly, whereby the legs range between a stored position inside the storage pocket and substantially parallel to the sidewall, and a deployed position outside the storage pocket and substantially perpendicular to the sidewall, the legs pivoting about the sidewall hinge pins with the handle assembly maintaining a substantially parallelogram configuration with the sidewall, the gripping member moving horizontally while remaining substantially parallel with the sidewall.
In a preferred aspect of the invention, the system is further comprised of a handle locking sub-assembly affixed within the backplane end of the storage pocket between the inner wall of the pocket and the inner leg of the handle assembly so as to lock the handle assembly into the deployed position as the handle assembly flips out from the stored position inside the storage pocket to the deployed position. The sub-assembly is comprised of a leaf spring housing top section, a leaf spring housing bottom section, a leaf spring housed within the leaf spring housing sections, a locking member hinge-jointed at one end to the inner leg and the circuit pack end being adapted to interact with the sub-assembly and a locking cavity formed in the leaf spring housing top and bottom sections and adapted to entrap the circuit pack end of the locking member so as to lock the handle assembly into the deployed position.
In another preferred aspect of the invention, the system is further comprised of a coil spring fitted at the gripping member hinge-joint of at least one of the legs, one of the coil spring""s ends pressing against the inside of the leg and the other end pressing against the gripping member so as to spring load the handle assembly.
In an aspect of the invention, a circuit pack is adapted for slidable engagement of it""s sidewalls between a stored position inside a shelf and an extracted position outside the shelf The circuit pack comprises a handle assemble storage pocket formed in each sidewall of the circuit pack, a handle assembly mounted within the pocket and hinged for movement between a stored position within the pocket and a deployed position in which the handle assembly may be gripped and a spring biassing the handle assembly to the deployed position when the circuit pack is extracted.
This invention will allow easier insertion and extraction of the unwieldy circuit packs without taking up valuable shelf or circuit pack real estate. The invention is ergonomic, helping to prevent injuries that may occur when a person of any size handles such large and heavy objects.
The handles will prevent the handler from having to lift the circuit packs, which can weigh in at about 20-25 lbs, by grabbing the sharp heatsink fin surfaces.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.